Pressing In to the Promises of God, Pastor Wendell Williams

1-29-2012            Pastor Wendell Williams               Pressing In to the Promises of God

The promises of God [2 Corinthians] are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’; the Bible never fails.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (NKJV)

• The promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’. When it is lived out through you it is in His glory.
• Through you His promises and purposes are accomplished; He gets the glory AND you matter!
• You are a precious child of God

Establishing the character of the One who promised…

I have a God whose promises are far more than a nickel… He is real!

Leave with a growing and built up confidence in God. The promises that He is given [in Him] work through you. They are still ‘yes’ and ‘amen’. These promises will be fulfilled to you.

• “I want them [the promises] working for me!

1 Kings 8:54-61

And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, that he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

"Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. We have a God whose word and promises do not fail. May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers.

And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day."(NKJV)

1)      Tell your mind and your soul that “God never fails!”

2)      Let your heart [therefore] be loyal to the LORD our God

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

• The blessings of the LORD are the coming of His intentions [for you].
• It is not God’s will that anyone go to hell; they go to hell by their own will [that is] contrary to the word of God!

The LORD is not slow… He is patient… come to repentance [NIV paraphrased]

3)      “Get your life and your heart right with God!”

If they come to repentance then they won’t perish; it qualifies you to receive the promise.

Titus 1:1-3

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior; (NKJV)

4)      Stay under the word…

Independent Christians lives become shipwrecked…

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, (NKJV)

• Stay in the love walk; God is faithful!
• Keep your heart right!
• Do the word!

Hebrews 10:25

…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.(NKJV)

People take the Bible… twist scripture and talk themselves out of it [the word of the LORD]

• Stay connected to the assembly

Hebrews 11:11

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. (NKJV)

• We need to judge Him [God] faithful; He is a faithful God [see Hebrews 1:1]

2 Peter 1:1-4

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (NKJV)

• He has given us all good things that pertain to life and godliness
• The road can be tough… He never promised us a rose garden
• He will never forsake you; He will abide with you
• The challenge is in your natural mind where we focus on things that are not good for us…
• God points us to the Tree of Life where we will find life [and] life more abundantly.
• God wants you to have His ‘nature’

God does not change… doesn’t lie… is ever faithful!

Deuteronomy 11:26-31

"Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it.

Spies go in… 10 have a negative report… 2 come back saying “Yes we can!” [Caleb and Joshua]

There is a miracle [going] across your Jordan. He has promised… He will ‘part’ the waters. You will possess [it]!

There is a physical testimony…

Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

The cursing was on the bald mountain [Mount Ebal]…

The blessing presided over Mount Gerizim; take Gerizim because the promises of God will never fail!

2 Corinthians 1:20

God cannot lie…. ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’